Left atrial volume by cardiac CTA prior to catheter ablation: comparison to echocardiography and association with recurrent atrial fibrillation

Left atrial volume by cardiac CTA prior to catheter ablation: comparison to echocardiography and association with recurrent atrial fibrillation

Wissam Alajaji

Ottorino Costantini

Tyler L Taigen

Mark A Iler

BMC Research Notes

2023 Apr 7

Objective: Left atrial volume index (LAVI) by echocardiography can be challenging and its accuracy is highly dependent on image quality. Cardiac computed tomography angiography (CTA) can overcome echocardiographic LAVI measurement challenges; however, data are limited. Therefore, we evaluated the reproducibility of LAVI by CTA, its correlation to echocardiography, and its association with recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) in this retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent CTA prior to PVI. LAVI was measured by CTA and echocardiography using the area length method.

Results: 74 patients had echocardiography and CTA within 6 months and were included in this study. The interobserver variability of LAVI measured by CTA was low (1.2%). CTA correlated with echocardiography but found larger LAVI values by a factor of 1.6. Also, LAVI cut off of ≥ 55 ml/m2 measured by CTA correlated with recurrent AF after PVI (adjusted Odds Ratio 3.47, p = 0.033).

DOI: 10.1186/s13104-023-06313-2

English